[0:00] Take your Bibles and we'll try to save this thing. Matthew 26. Matthew 26, verse 17. It's good to see Gray, your wife. Man, it's just good to see so many of our friends here. When you pastor a church, you don't have many at your church, so it's good to go to other places and to see friends in other churches.
[0:15] Amen. That didn't go over very well, did it? Oh, man. Wow. All right. There was another church. There was another church. Is Brother Sam here tonight?
[0:27] Brother Sam. I will defer my message to Brother Sam for the validity of what we cover with the Passover. We had the opportunity to have Brother Sam with our church family last week, and he just did a fantastic and fantastic job.
[0:42] So, Brother Sam, we still are reveling in that. So, I humbly ask for leniency tonight that if I mess up anything through this, that you would correct me afterwards and not throw a songbook at me while I'm preaching. But we cover tonight.
[0:53] Most people with the timeline, some say that it started on Wednesday. Most people think of Good Friday as when Jesus, what did I say? Everybody's laughing over on my left-hand side. There's no songbooks.
[1:08] Stinking liberal church. Take that to the pastor, huh? Oh, my goodness.
[1:19] Oh, I thought that's what you were saying. Okay, back to the Bible. All right? Back to the Bible. Many think that the Good Friday, the Passover, the sacrifice of the Lamb, and all the things that we find in the Old Testament are just a beautiful picture that are pointing to the real thing, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1:40] And whenever you see anything in the Old Testament that has to deal with salvation, you're going to see where it's going to make a direct line, linkage to the Lord Jesus Christ. All the blood that was shed, all the things that were done, it was not to get caught up in those things in and of themselves.
[1:57] It was a point as to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this time of the Passover, this time that the feast of memorial that they were to keep continually and to all generations was to help to remind them of Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ the Messiah was going to do.
[2:13] And it's always amazing when you go through the Bible with Israel. If Israel was following God and love with God and doing what they ought to be, faithful to God, then Israel would be a nation that would keep Passover.
[2:24] But when you go through and you see the different kingdoms and you see the different kings, you notice that Israel, when they got away from God, they got away from worshiping Jehovah, following Jehovah God, and they started worshiping other gods, it's amazing that what went right along with that every time that Israel left worshiping God is they stopped doing the Passover.
[2:43] And so when you see with some of these kings and in Chronicles and all, it says this king reinstituted the Passover, this king reinstituted the Passover, it's because the people had gotten away from God and they'd gotten away from the Passover of reminding them of what God had done.
[2:57] So we come to Matthew, Matthew 26, and we're going to start with verse 17 and read a few verses there. In Matthew chapter 26 and verse 17, the Bible says this, Now the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and you had the Passover the first day, then you had seven other days for the unleavened bread, an eight-day segment right there.
[3:14] Now the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And this was very, very important that Jesus would partake of the Passover with his disciples before Jesus would actually become the Passover lamb that would give his life for you and I.
[3:32] And then it's sort of funny here with the wording of Jesus. He says, Go into this city to such a man. The way that's phrased right there, I mean, go to such a man. It's like Jesus looks and says, Okay, Brother Holt, I want you to go into Alpharetta to so-and-so.
[3:45] And then he sort of leaves it there. And it's sort of very vague. He says, Go into such a city to such a man and say to him, The master saith, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples.
[3:58] As they've gone into Jerusalem, they're going to keep the Passover. There will be places that would be prepared for two families usually to get together and to have the Passover and do the Passover. So this is falling right in line.
[4:08] And Jesus says, I want you to go into the town and I want you to see, you know, so-and-so. And he's going to take you to a place and we're going to prepare. There's where the Passover is going to be prepared for me and for your disciples. And our disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover.
[4:23] And keep on going here. Verse 20. Now when the evening was come, he sat down with the twelve. Notice with me. Verse 22. And as they were exceedingly...
[4:33] Am I reading that right? And they were exceedingly... Okay. Let's do it. Verse 19. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready...
[4:46] I don't know what was in y'all's water tonight, but please, no more. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. And so if you're going to take notes, it's going to be real simple. I want you to write down just these three basic blocks.
[4:58] Ready? I want you to write down the word a lamb. A lamb. And then a loser. And then I want you to write down the Lord's Supper. And if we go through this passage of Scripture, when we're looking at Matthew chapter 26, we're going to get to the Lord's Supper.
[5:09] But I don't know if many people really grasp the beauty of all this, that the Lord's Supper is instituted right during the Passover meal. And while the Jews are having the Passover meal, and Brother Sam gave us tracts for our Jewish friends, that there would be a tract that would let them know that we're celebrating the Passover, and tell them about the real Passover.
[5:28] And this is a very, very, very important night when it comes to them worshiping and remembering what God had done for them in Egypt. And while they're having this meal, Jesus is going to go through several things.
[5:38] And one of the things He's going to go through is He's going to go through the Passover meal with them. And during the middle of that, He's going to inform them of who it is that's going to betray Him. And then after Judas leaves, they're going to go into, This is my body, which is broken for you.
[5:49] And so you see where it naturally falls out. We're going to have the lamb, the Passover, the loser getting rid of Judas and showing them He's the one who betrayed Him. And then Him instituting the Lord's Supper, that just as Israel was to do the Passover, remembering how God had saved them from their bondage, so the Lord's Supper was to remind us of what Jesus Christ has freed us from our sins through His sacrifice and through what He's done.
[6:14] Are you all with me, amen or no? All right, so look with me if you don't mind. As you go through this, we look at the Passover. Josephus said, and this is one of the historians, that it was not unusual for a quarter of a million lambs to have been slain during this time.
[6:27] And there from the temple down to the valley of Jezreel, the Kidron Valley down through there, you can only imagine the flow of blood that would have gone through there. If you've ever worked on a farm and anybody ever had a killing of a pig or the slaughtering of a hog or the slaughtering of a cow, if you've ever seen that, and there's no jokes there, if you've ever seen that, there's quite a bit of blood that is involved in that.
[6:47] And I remember as a young man, we went and had the old time, you know, slaughtered the pig, do the sausage, grind it up the old school type way. And I remember thinking, I'm not going to be a butcher when I grow up. Hallelujah. Amen.
[6:57] No, I mean, when you walk up there and the pig's head is on a stump looking at you because Dad had already, you know, sort of taken care of that, I'm sitting there looking at that pig and Wilbur's looking at me and I'm looking at Wilbur and I'm like, where's Charlotte's Web?
[7:08] Anybody with me, man? And I knew that that wasn't in it for me, but I'm thinking as a preacher that if I was during this day and time, of all the lambs, of all the procedures, of all that had to go through, of all the blood that had to flow during that Passover period between three and five of them sacrificing those lambs, and it always amazes me just the thought of all that blood.
[7:29] And you go through the different feasts. God had established these things, pointing them, without them even realizing it, to the Messiah. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, that seven-day period, the Passover and then the next seven days was a Feast of Unleavened Bread.
[7:43] The way that they would prepare their bread and those that cook, and Miss Betty makes tremendous, the yeast rolls, the cinnamon rolls. I mean, God's got a special touch. How many of y'all believe God's got a special touch on Miss Betty?
[7:55] Amen. How many of y'all believe she should make us all cinnamon rolls? Say hallelujah. Amen. Yes. I got a witness for you. Amen. Well, what they would do is they would take from the dough and they would pinch and they would set it aside and allow that to ferment.
[8:07] And that would be prepared for the next batch of bread. They would take the little pinch that came from that one batch, that starter batch, if you will, and that would ferment. And they would take that ferment in there and they would put it into the next batch of bread.
[8:20] And putting it in that next batch of bread is where the yeast came from, the fermentation, the leaven there that would make the bread rise. And he says, what I want you to do is this. I want to make sure that we have a weak, it's unleavened bread.
[8:31] We do not want any leaven in this bread. See, he wanted them to remember that when he brought them out of Egypt, he did not want Egypt into their lives. They say that the 10 plagues was to get Israel out of Egypt.
[8:47] They say that the 10 commandments was to get Egypt out of Israel. And the things that they had learned and the things that they had adopted as their own and the things that they had brought into their life, he says, I don't want Egypt into your life.
[8:59] And so now we step into the New Testament. And Jesus talked about the leaven of the Pharisees. He talked about this sin. It's always, it's just beautifully symbolic all the way through the New Testament. And he wants sin to be removed from our life.
[9:11] And aren't you so grateful? I know that I'm grateful this evening that because of the Passover lamb, Jesus Christ, that he's the only one that's able to remove sin from our lives. Can somebody say amen?
[9:22] What does the old song say? I know you don't have song books, but maybe your grandfather taught it to you one day. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Amen?
[9:32] And so all of a sudden we're going to have this Passover. Then seven days we're going to have the unleavened bread. And then the beautiful thing after the Passover and the unleavened, the feast of the unleavened bread was the feast of first fruits.
[9:44] See, these feasts had to deal around the spring harvest and the fall harvest. And during the spring harvest, they would take the first of that that would come forth. And you've read in the Bible and all where they would take that first that would come forth and they would bind it together and they would present it to the priest.
[10:01] And the priest would take that sheaf of that first ripe harvest and it would be a wave offering to the Lord. Well, you know what? The first fruits of the land were given and celebrated that God in heaven had blessed them and God in heaven had provided for them and God in heaven had protected them.
[10:18] God has been so good to our lives. Can somebody say amen? And so they would wave that in celebration to the Lord. Do you know in the New Testament that Jesus Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection?
[10:28] That all of this points toward the death of Christ, that He gave us victory over sin, that He rose from the dead, He's the resurrected Savior. And boy, Sunday, that should just be flooding our soul.
[10:39] Do all that you can, no matter where you are, to make sure people are in the house of God come Sunday. If you've got to buy them lunch, if you've got to buy them a Coke, if you've got to buy them a suit, buy them whatever you've got to, get them in the house of God Sunday and let them hear the resurrection message of Jesus Christ.
[10:54] Amen or no? And so all of a sudden we go through Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We take a look right here and the Feast of Firstfruits and all of this is coming through that spring harvest. And then after the Feast of Firstfruits with Jesus Christ rising from the dead and Him being the firstfruits of the resurrection, you're following the thought structure here now, aren't you?
[11:12] The death of Christ, the unleavened bread, He took away our sins. He was buried and rose again. What was the next major thing? And with as many missionaries in here, if you do not get this answer, you're all fired.
[11:25] All right? In chronology, what was the next great event that happened after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? Who said it?
[11:37] Sam Quinn just saved every one of y'all because I saw missionaries looking at their wives going, What is it? And so guess what the next feast is? It's the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost.
[11:47] And it was 50. And all of a sudden you look with this Feast of Weeks, this Feast of Pentecost, it's occurred 50 days after the firstfruits. It celebrated the end of the grain harvest.
[11:57] It was the primary focus of the festival was gratitude to the God of heaven. And just like we've been endued with the Spirit of God and dwelt with the Spirit of God within our life, we see how all this marches on pointing to Jesus died for us.
[12:11] Jesus cleanses of our sins. He's the firstfruits of the resurrection. He's the one that indwells us through His Spirit. God has been so good to us. And what's so amazing is between that spring harvest and the fall harvest, what's coming in between there?
[12:30] What is between the spring and the fall? Summer. And summer is usually known as the dog days. They're just days that seem seemingly inactivity.
[12:40] And it's amazing in history, in the mind of God, even as these feasts are prepared. That during the spring harvest, you've got some beautiful, beautiful things with the Passover lamb, the cleansing of sin, the resurrection of the Savior in Pentecost, the Holy Spirit coming into our lives.
[12:57] But now we're in a time where it's almost like the dog days. It's the church era. It's that mystery in the Word of God. And all of a sudden, there's a break between the spring harvest and the fall harvest.
[13:08] And on the timeline of God, what is the next great thing that you and I, with anticipation, we look forward to? It is imminent. There is nothing that stands in between that happening in our lives and for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[13:23] What are we all waiting for, children of God? We're waiting for the what? And with the rapture, what is going to be an instrument that will mark the rapture? Man, it is not a guess.
[13:38] What is it, the instrument that's going to mark? Brother Holt, for 5,000 points that do not mean anything. Help me from Chile, South America.
[13:48] What is the instrument that will mark the rapture of the church? It will be the what? The trumpet. And guess what the next feast is? It's the Feast of Trumpets. And we're going to enter into the Feast of Trumpets, and the church of God is going to rise.
[14:01] And then all those which are dead in the Lord, they're going to rise and meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. There's some beautiful, beautiful things, and it starts with the Passover. And it goes through the Feast of Weeks.
[14:11] It goes through the Feast of Trumpets. It goes through the Day of Atonement, where the priest would walk in and offer upon the Holies of Holies once a year. And how that was so important for the nation of Israel.
[14:23] And understand this, when the church is taken up, God has not forgotten Israel. God has not forsaken Israel. God gave the promises to Israel, and God is faithful to His Word. And God is going to accomplish with Israel exactly what God said that He was going to accomplish with Israel.
[14:39] And God's going to regather them. God's going to reinvigorate them. God's going to use them. God's going to bless them. God's going to regather them. God has a plan for that nation. And when the church is taken up, that whole tribulation period is because God loves His people so much, and He is wanting to draw them to Himself.
[14:57] And the Day of Atonement of gathering and loving on the people of Israel, just as He was atoned for on that Day of Atonement, God's going to be working deeply within their life. And then the last one, the seventh one for the year, is called the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths.
[15:10] And aren't you grateful in our life? You remember John 14? He looks at them and He says this. He says, Let not your heart be troubled. He says, You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions.
[15:21] If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, what is He going to do? I'm going to come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there may ye be also.
[15:35] And then I know people get all excited about, I've got a mansion. Okay. I don't care if mine's a double wide. You think I'm kidding? I don't care. People are like, oh, glory to God, streets of gold.
[15:47] I don't care if the dirt roads. Walls of jasper and sardis and all. I don't care if it's aluminum cans. Because none of that is what makes heaven heaven.
[15:58] You can have the mansion. You can have the square footage. You can have the gold. You can have the jewels. You can have the gates. You, honest to goodness, on my part can have every bit of it. Because there's one thing that makes heaven heaven.
[16:10] There's one thing that makes it joyful. There's one reason hell is such a dreadful place. Heaven is where I will be with a God that loves me, that has drawn me by His Son, Jesus Christ.
[16:20] I've been washed in His blood. I've been cleansed from my sin. I am a child of God. I'm a joint heir of Jesus Christ. Heaven is my home and its glory. It's not because what is there.
[16:31] It's because who is there. Are you with me, man? And what makes hell such a wretched place is for all eternity you will be separated from the one that loves you so much.
[16:42] And so they sat down. That Passover of Exodus 12, where the Lamb was taken on the 10th day and was allowed to be with the family. Was it to build some type of familiarity?
[16:53] Some type of relationship? I don't know. But what I am grateful for is the Lamb of God that wants to build a relationship with you and I. And that 14th day, that Lamb was slain.
[17:05] And the blood of that Lamb on the side of the top of that doorway was placed. And people want to say, I'm hoping I get to heaven. I pray my good will outweigh my bad.
[17:16] Well, my dear friends, how can our good ever outweigh our bad when there is no good within us? People say, well, why do bad things happen to good people?
[17:28] Well, isn't that a little ironic? Who said any of us were good? And so all of a sudden, upon that door that represented that family, the death angel didn't stop off and tabulate how much goodness and morality and sweetness was in that home.
[17:44] That death angel, as he went over in judgment, was looking for one thing and one thing alone. And he was looking for was the blood applied to the doorposts. And when it comes to your life and mine, it's not works of righteousness, which we have done.
[17:58] But by his blood, he has saved us. By his mercy, he has saved us. He's looking for one thing in the life of your children, in the life of fathers and mothers and grandparents. He is looking to see, has the blood been applied to your life?
[18:11] Meaning, have you placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior? Amen or no? The Passover. My time. I've got to hurry. Beautiful. Beautiful stuff.
[18:24] And so we see a lamb. But now, number two, write this down. We see a loser. A loser. You say, well, I know plenty of them. I write this not in the sense that we would look and say, he or she, boy, aren't they losers?
[18:38] Aren't they losers? We sort of really use that terminology quite loosely, don't we? The reason I use it, would you look with me starting in verse 20 there. Verse 20. I use it for the reason of, how could a man be so close to Jesus and yet be so far away?
[18:55] How could a man be that close and miss it? Look in verse 20 with me if you don't mind. Now, when the evening was come, he sat down with the twelve. Verse 21. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me.
[19:11] And they were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? People are like, preach a wide in the world where they say, Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I?
[19:21] And I'm sitting there going, it seems quite obvious to me. Because within the average heart of somebody that would be very honest, they know the propensity of their life is to forsake Christ. You say, I, I would never do that.
[19:33] Well, isn't it amazing the one that stood like Superman is the very one that first and foremost denies him. The one that would really be retrospective and looking within their heart and their soul. They know the weakness of our flesh, the wretchedness of our life.
[19:45] And it's just amazing to me as these men are there and they're partaking of this Passover meal and Jesus is laying out and they're familiar with this whole ordeal of the Passover and its representation, beautiful, beautiful time, of the master with his disciples.
[20:00] And he says, what if he's going to betray me? Lord, is it I? It's almost like they're saying, please tell me it's not me. Please, please tell me I didn't give in to my weakness.
[20:11] Please tell me I'm not the one that betrays you. Please tell me that I did not give in to my flesh. Please, please tell me, Lord, is it I? What I'm wanting you to say is not that, yes, you did it. They're looking for, no, you were not the one that did it.
[20:24] Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? And they look in verse 23 and he answered and said, he that dibbeth his hand with me in the dish, the same, shall betray me. That bread as they would take it in.
[20:36] Maybe you've eaten hummus and other things. You take the bread and you've dipped it in many times and you eat it up. It's very, very good stuff, by the way. And this with the Passover, I mean, they're reclined. They're eating. They're partaking of this Passover.
[20:47] Hours would go by. I mean, this was the time of remembrance within their lives. And while they're eating, it's like, one of you is going to betray me. And they're like, oh, is it I? Is it I? Is it I? Well, the one that dips in the bowl because it would have been very natural for people to be dipping in the bowl.
[21:00] He said, the one that dips in the bowl with me will be the one that will betray me. And verse 24, the Son of Man goeth as it is written of him. But woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man had betrayed.
[21:11] It had been good for that man if he had not been born. And people are like, well, man, that seems like so, such harsh, harsh words. Do you realize, friends, those are not harsh words at all.
[21:22] That was compassion telling the truth. Preacher, I don't know. Watch what he's saying right here. Now, the Son of Man goeth as it is written of him. God's going to accomplish exactly what God's going to accomplish.
[21:33] God's going to do exactly what God's going to do. Well, I'm going to stand in the way of Jesus Christ being the Savior of the world. No, you're not. And the reason is this. Before you even thought of, conceived, or born, Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God that was slain before the foundation of the world.
[21:50] The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him. As it's according to the Scriptures, so be it. But was there anger? Was there a furrowed brow upon the Savior's head?
[22:02] I don't know. But I would love to have been sitting there with a piece of unleavened bread in my hand, looking across at the Savior for when he said this. But woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
[22:18] Modern day, and I'm not changing the King James at all, but for you to maybe get a grasp of what he's saying is, you ever heard somebody say, God help him? Woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
[22:30] It had been good for that man if he had not been born. Because what he's saying is this. It had been better for that man not to have been born than to ever be born and to reject, deny, and betray the Son of God.
[22:41] It had been better that that man had never been born than to die for all eternity separated from God in a place called hell. It had been better for that man if he'd never been born. The loser.
[22:52] We've had the Lamb. The loser. The reason he's a loser is because of all the things that he lost out on. We look at Judas and we see, oh man, he really lost out on a lot of things.
[23:02] You know, if we're not careful as Christians, we're so used to this, we miss a lot of things. We miss the Spirit of God moving within our hearts and within our lives. We miss the opportunity of seeing men brought to Christ.
[23:14] We miss opportunities of us growing in our faith, from faith to faith, grace to grace, strength to strength. We miss out on these things. And we look during this season that was so beautifully laid out by the Son of God.
[23:26] And we see the Lamb, that Passover Lamb. And we thank God that He is a Passover Lamb. And one's mind only wonders, and there's different viewpoints on this, and I'll leave mine out of it.
[23:39] But many think with the Friday of the Passover and that three to five wind of two hours of lambs being slain, that there upon the cross of Calvary, that while Jesus Christ is saying those infamous words that will reign for all eternity, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
[23:57] Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. I thirst. And when the Son of God says, Father, in thy hands, I commend my spirit. That when Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, as He was being crucified, they did not take His life.
[24:14] They did not have the power to take God, the Son's life. You do understand that. Well, they killed Him. No, they didn't. Jesus Christ said, I lay my life down, and I pick it up again, but there's never a point in time where I'm not in teetotal control of this whole scene going on.
[24:33] There's never a time where God's not in control. Amen. And when Jesus Christ was ready to lay down His life, I, Father, commend, yield my spirit.
[24:44] Now is the time that I decide that I will lay down my life. That many believe that in the airwaves you would be able to hear the bleating of the sheep as their throats were being cut and the blood was being shed.
[24:58] That for the Passover, but that Lamb that was on Gordon's Calvary, that Calvary there of where he was nailed between two sinners, that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, laid down His life.
[25:11] Beautiful thing. And for Judas to be right there, think of all the things that Judas could have been so privy to and part of, but he slapdab missed every bit of it. Are you losing out tonight?
[25:26] Many in that day were saying to me, Lord, Lord, did we not? These verses trouble my spirit. They burden my soul. Did we not go to classes?
[25:38] Did we not help in the nursery? Did we not hand out the bulletins? Did we not? Did we not? Did we not? Did we not? Did we not? Could you imagine, dear friends, of a Baptist standing before the Lord?
[25:52] They're standing in their religion, their righteousness, their works, but they're not standing in Christ. Could you imagine? Could you imagine? Could you imagine being there to hear these words, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, for I never knew you.
[26:10] If you know me for any stretch and length of time, I am not about people getting saved over and over again and manipulating them and guilting them. No, there's got to be conviction by the Spirit of God. I don't believe you get saved over and over again.
[26:21] But I really believe this, the older I get, it better be the first time. You're missing what I'm saying. There must be a regeneration within our life that we have been born again, not academically heightened with what we know about God.
[26:37] We've learned all about God and about God and about God and about God, but we don't know God. Judas was a man that was handed everything and died with nothing.
[26:50] He was a loser, amen. The lamb, the loser, and the Lord's Supper. Look with me if you don't mind. Verse 26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread.
[27:03] Oh, Brother Sam, I about called you. I didn't know if you were going to be able to make it. I didn't know if I would be putting you on the spot, but I was going to let you do this while I was preaching this message. It was just a beautiful illustration.
[27:13] I just really loved it. I'd love to be able to see the bread. I'd love to see you be pulling it from those different pockets that you were showing us. My wife got home that night, and she's like, man, that was powerful.
[27:29] I was like, he did okay. She's like, man, that was powerful. I was like, man, that really was powerful. And she started getting teary-eyed. And I do good until she gets teary-eyed, and then I turn into Miss Betty.
[27:39] She's like, man, that's not a put-down at all. But she's like, did you see that bread? She's like, did you see it when he started talking about the lions?
[27:50] Did you see it when he started talking about he was piercing all the holes in it? That's all I needed. Oh, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace is upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.
[28:03] And it's just amazing to me that the hands, in just a few, few hours, we're going to go through the trials, and then we're going to go through the crucifixion, in just a few hours. It's just giving me cold chills. In a few hours, the hands, they will be pierced, laid hand upon the bread that represent his sinlessness.
[28:21] And he'd break it. And he says to them, this is my body, which is broken for you. And I think if we're not very, very careful, we lose the wonder of it all.
[28:32] We lose the sweetness of what Jesus Christ has done for us. How he has given his life, he laid down his life for you and I.
[28:44] Can you hear the Savior's voice, the one that spoke the world into existence, that said, let there be in whatever he said. It had no choice but to happen because God said it.
[28:58] Can you listen to that voice in the upper room with those men? The traitor has left. You've got a man that wants to lean upon the bosom of Christ. It's because he loves him. He's not perfect. He's just madly in love with him.
[29:11] And can you hear that Savior say, take heed. This is my body, which is broken for you.
[29:21] And you have the privilege of seeing on the other side, the whole crucifixion story. You know about the cat of nine tails.
[29:32] You know how it would lay waste, the human body, shrimp by shrimp. You know about the crown of thorns. You know about the robe laid upon him. You know about the reed that beat him.
[29:43] You know about the spittle that hung from his face. You know about all of this. And yet as he break it, he said, I want you to take this.
[29:55] And as you eat this, I want you to eat it in remembrance of what I'm going to do for you. We are so busy. And brother Jason, I don't know why I'm picking on you, but you're just right there, brother.
[30:05] We are so busy. This time of year, one of the, well, just one of the darndest things about it for us as preachers and all is we've got so much to do that we can fly right by doing what we're supposed to do without even taking a moment to realize.
[30:23] Take. Take a moment. Take a moment to hold the bread. It's not the bread that's important. It's a symbol of the bread.
[30:35] This is my body. How long has it been since you just took a moment just in your own way? We all don't worship the same. We all don't get moved away or are led the same in the sense of our worship for God.
[30:47] But when's the last time that it really got a hold of you in your way? When's the last time it got a hold of you that Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God that died for you? When's the last time it just got all over you?
[31:03] And I think what troubles me, and I'll use me, I think what troubles me is do I ever show the Father in Heaven by my actions that I probably deserved it?
[31:15] I'm good enough that I probably deserved the death of Christ. I mean, I'm going to come in and I'm going to serve Him and I'm going to do Him an honor. I mean, I got to be honest with you guys, God sure is blessed to have a guy like me. Is that how we live?
[31:28] Is that how we act? Is that how we worship? Have we reached a point in place that it's gone stale and numb and cold and moldy because the truth of the matter is not a matter that we're blessed to have Him.
[31:44] He's blessed to have a missionary like us. And can you hear the Savior as He reaches out to you tonight? And He says, Here, take this. Feel the holes in it because they're fixing to be in my body.
[31:57] See the stripes because my body's fixing to be striped. Go ahead, take this. And as you hold it, I want you to remember this is my body which is broken for you.
[32:09] And then the cup. This is the New Testament, a new covenant in my blood that's shed for you. It sort of makes you take the Lord's Supper different.
[32:24] When you pause and think about, You know what? I didn't deserve this. I didn't deserve Him. I didn't deserve His death. I didn't deserve His burial and I surely didn't deserve His resurrection.
[32:39] I'll be honest with you. Maybe you have so much to offer God that God's honored to have you tonight. I sort of feel like He got stuck with me. I'm not worthy of Him dying for me.
[32:50] I'm not worthy of His blood. And honestly, my soul, it is so melted within me. I don't want to scare you, but my soul is so melted within me. If I could sing, all I would do would be erupted to this song.
[33:05] God is so good. God is so good. God is so good to me. I got tickled when I was studying and praying through that Miss Tracy where it said that after this, they sung a hymn and went out.
[33:17] And I'm there and I've got tears hitting my desk because it's just me and God. And there's tears hitting my desk and I started chuckling and I'm like, I know what hymn they sung. Surely, surely they sung.
[33:28] Surely they were privy to the song. God is so good. And could you imagine them disrupting and saw when Jesus said, this is my body which is broken for you. This is a cup of the new covenant, the new testament of my blood.
[33:40] As often as you drink it, you drink it and remember to me. And can you just imagine with me them all breaking into song. God is so good. Amen or no? Amen. When's the last time God heard you sing in your soul, God is so good.
[34:00] Ah, we pray them Jews, Brother Sam, during this Friday, we pray them Jews, wake up! Oh, I know God wants them to, amen? But Brother Sam, I'm a little challenged in my soul if maybe God's not looking down at we Baptists saying, now they had the Passover and they need to wake up.
[34:21] And Tony, you've got the Lord's Supper and you need to wake up. And this side, they are to worship me as the Messiah and the Savior. And Tony, you're also to worship me as the Messiah and the Savior.
[34:36] Maybe tonight, you just take a moment and say to the God of heaven, God, you have been so good to me. Amen or no? Amen.